Bestselling author Carla Neggers' new novel, The Mist, focuses on Lizzie Rush, a hotelier whose father was a spy and taught her everything he knows. Lizzie uncovers evidence that billionaire Norman Estrabrook might be at the center of an international criminal organization and is involved in the kidnapping of the FBI Director's daughter. Neggers says, "Will Davenport, a real spy, suspects that Lizzie is the key to finding the missing billionaire and a man from his own past ... who is supposed to be dead."Will Davenport played a secondary role in her previous novel, The Angel, but Neggers says, "Once he showed up on the page, I knew he'd have to have his own story. He's mysterious, wealthy and British--and very, very capable."
The book takes place in Ireland, Boston, and Maine, which Neggers says are three of her favorite places. Travel comes naturally. Neggers says, "I love, love, love to travel." In particular, she notes that researching Ireland had been a lot of fun and she didn't know that The Angel and then The Mist would be partly set there "until we went on a family trip to the southwest Irish coast and I stood in the ruin of the stone cottage where my son-in-law's great-grandfather was born."
Neggers keeps busy writing. The Angel just came out in paperback and The Mist is just hitting the shelves in hardcover. The next book is Cold River, which is a follow-up to last year's Cold Pursuit. Neggers is currently working on The Whisper,
scheduled for 2010. "I'm writing two separate series at the same time.
The Black Falls 'Cold' books are set in Vermont and Washington, DC. The
FBI-Boston PD books are set in Boston, Maine and Ireland, with a touch
of Texas."When asked what her writing schedule is like, Neggers responds, "What schedule? Ha! I work hard and I love to write, but I'm not a regimented writer." She tends to write in the morning and in the late afternoon, but not much immediately after lunch, what she calls her "dead zone." Early in the start of a book she describes her writing as coming in fits and starts. "Once I'm in the 'zone' with the story, I can write 18 hours at a stretch and hardly notice. I don't necessarily like to, but I can!"
When not writing, Neggers likes to kayak, hike, garden and read. (And did she mention she likes to travel?) She also loves to research her books. "I've fired a gun and trained with a guy who trains police recruits, and I've learned a lot from sitting down and talking with detectives, judges, probation officers, people in the military, doctors, nurses, federal agents, search-and-rescue experts--I love to ask questions and listen."
Mark Terry is the author
of the Derek Stillwater thriller series. His newest thriller, THE
SERPENT'S KISS, is available in stores and online.
